Scandinavia trip (mostly Norway) - advice welcome!

Does anyone have any experience of any of the following routes please?

On Monday 5th August, I plan to take a late afternoon/evening train from Copenhagen Airport to Gothenburg. My flight arrives around 16:15; does anyone have any idea roughly what sort of time I can expect to be at the platform of the railway station? (obviously it may depend on queues)

I see there are high speed services at 1742, 1842, and 1942. Does anyone know if these are likely to be busy? Standard class is 500SEK and first is 640SEK for non-rebookable but it's unclear if I bought such a ticket for the 1742 if I'd be valid on the 1842 or if I need the "refundable" ticket? The "re-bookable" option is greyed out. There will be two of us; will 1st class be better for us (e.g. it may be possible to get a table for two)?

If the tickets are not flexible, I could get a 5 day global inter-rail rather than the 3 day Norway one which I am currently planning to get.

The trains covered by the 3 day Norway Inter Rail are as follows:

Tuesday 6th August


Wednesday 7th August

Thursday 8th August

OSLO to BERGEN changing at Myrdal to do the route to Flam. Any advice for this? Any trains to avoid?

If anyone can advise on how busy any of these trains are likely to be, and if we are to get seat reservations (for a group of 4; presumably we could book tables on all or most of the above trains?) if there are good seats to go for, what type of trains we can expect, and any other useful information, that would be very much appreciated!

Many thanks in advance

yorkie said:

Does anyone have any experience of any of the following routes please?

On Monday 5th August, I plan to take a late afternoon/evening train from Copenhagen Airport to Gothenburg. My flight arrives around 16:15; does anyone have any idea roughly what sort of time I can expect to be at the platform of the railway station? (obviously it may depend on queues)

I see there are high speed services at 1742, 1842, and 1942. Does anyone know if these are likely to be busy? Standard class is 500SEK and first is 640SEK for non-rebookable but it's unclear if I bought such a ticket for the 1742 if I'd be valid on the 1842 or if I need the "refundable" ticket? The "re-bookable" option is greyed out. There will be two of us; will 1st class be better for us (e.g. it may be possible to get a table for two)?

If the tickets are not flexible, I could get a 5 day global inter-rail rather than the 3 day Norway one which I am currently planning to get.

The trains covered by the 3 day Norway Inter Rail are as follows:

Tuesday 6th August

GOTHENBURG 0914
KIL 1132

KIL 1229
OSLO 1509

OSLO 1602
TRONDHEIM 2249​

Wednesday 7th August

TRONDHEIM 0945
HAMAR 1545

HAMAR 1607
OSLO 1726​

Thursday 8th August

OSLO to BERGEN changing at Myrdal to do the route to Flam. Any advice for this? Any trains to avoid?

If anyone can advise on how busy any of these trains are likely to be, and if we are to get seat reservations (for a group of 4; presumably we could book tables on all or most of the above trains?) if there are good seats to go for, what type of trains we can expect, and any other useful information, that would be very much appreciated!

Many thanks in advance

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You might like to have a look at http://www.vktv.no/~opingebr/

It gives train formations for Norway. The "Fjerntog" section covers long distance services, many of which are locomotive hauled by El18 electric locos (derived from the Swiss Re460 type). Trondheim-Bodø is worked by a mix of DMUs and Di4 diesel locos (GM 645 engines).

yorkie said:

I see there are high speed services at 1742, 1842, and 1942. Does anyone know if these are likely to be busy? Standard class is 500SEK and first is 640SEK for non-rebookable but it's unclear if I bought such a ticket for the 1742 if I'd be valid on the 1842 or if I need the "refundable" ticket? The "re-bookable" option is greyed out. There will be two of us; will 1st class be better for us (e.g. it may be possible to get a table for two)?

Click to expand...

SJ have a summer promotion on first class. Valid 24 June - 11 August, book minimum 72hrs in advance, use the discount code PRIO19 on www.sj.se. Offers up to fifty per cent off first class in SJ day time trains, starting at SEK195.

yorkie said:

Does anyone have any experience of any of the following routes please?


Thursday 8th August

OSLO to BERGEN changing at Myrdal to do the route to Flam. Any advice for this? Any trains to avoid?

Many thanks in advance

Click to expand...

If you can somehow find out if (and how many) cruise ships are visiting Flåm on 8 August you will know if you will be able to avoid the crowds


.

yorkie said:

Does anyone have any experience of any of the following routes please?

On Monday 5th August, I plan to take a late afternoon/evening train from Copenhagen Airport to Gothenburg. My flight arrives around 16:15; does anyone have any idea roughly what sort of time I can expect to be at the platform of the railway station? (obviously it may depend on queues)

I see there are high speed services at 1742, 1842, and 1942. Does anyone know if these are likely to be busy? Standard class is 500SEK and first is 640SEK for non-rebookable but it's unclear if I bought such a ticket for the 1742 if I'd be valid on the 1842 or if I need the "refundable" ticket? The "re-bookable" option is greyed out. There will be two of us; will 1st class be better for us (e.g. it may be possible to get a table for two)?

Click to expand...

Are you traveling with checked luggage?

Without checked luggage, I've been able to get from the aircraft jetway at CPH airport to railway platform within 15-20 minutes without issues. The time depends upon how far away your aircraft is parked on the finger pier, how fast you walk and whether you need to engage in airport services, such as getting cash.

The 1742 from CPH may be the busier of the trains as it around the afternoon rush hour. But if traveling with reserved seats, this should not be an issue.

___

For a driver's eye view of this route, check out this Norwegian "slow TV" program that set up a camera in the locomotive cab, and was kept running for the entire journey. This footage was shown without edits. It can be found on YouTube:

Make sure you have reserved seats. When I did similar journeys, most of the trains were loco hauled and quite long, apart from Oslo to Trondheim, which was a 4 carriage Multiple Unit. Oslo to Bergen line is great as is the Trondheim to Bodo route. I also did Narvik across to Sweden which was a good journey too. Only 3 carriages, loco hauled from Narvik, but when we arrived in Sweden, we stopped at a temporary station just outside a large mining town in the north, the name of which escapes me, but extra carriages were added and I think there was a reversal too. The inland railway in Sweden was good too. I hope that you have a great time there. Be warned, it is expensive and they have funny rules about purchasing alcohol and where you can and can not drink it.

yorkie said:

Does anyone have any experience of any of the following routes please?

On Monday 5th August, I plan to take a late afternoon/evening train from Copenhagen Airport to Gothenburg. My flight arrives around 16:15; does anyone have any idea roughly what sort of time I can expect to be at the platform of the railway station? (obviously it may depend on queues)

I see there are high speed services at 1742, 1842, and 1942. Does anyone know if these are likely to be busy? Standard class is 500SEK and first is 640SEK for non-rebookable but it's unclear if I bought such a ticket for the 1742 if I'd be valid on the 1842 or if I need the "refundable" ticket? The "re-bookable" option is greyed out. There will be two of us; will 1st class be better for us (e.g. it may be possible to get a table for two)?

If the tickets are not flexible, I could get a 5 day global inter-rail rather than the 3 day Norway one which I am currently planning to get.

The trains covered by the 3 day Norway Inter Rail are as follows:

Tuesday 6th August

GOTHENBURG 0914
KIL 1132

KIL 1229
OSLO 1509

OSLO 1602
TRONDHEIM 2249​

Wednesday 7th August

TRONDHEIM 0945
HAMAR 1545

HAMAR 1607
OSLO 1726​

Thursday 8th August

OSLO to BERGEN changing at Myrdal to do the route to Flam. Any advice for this? Any trains to avoid?

If anyone can advise on how busy any of these trains are likely to be, and if we are to get seat reservations (for a group of 4; presumably we could book tables on all or most of the above trains?) if there are good seats to go for, what type of trains we can expect, and any other useful information, that would be very much appreciated!

Many thanks in advance

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Scandinavian Airports are really efficient, so not long, probably around 17:00, if your flight is on time, less if you have no checked baggage.
What airline are you travelling with? easyJet and Ryanair have their own Low Cost terminal at CPH

The non-rebookable fares are like advances in the UK, so a ticket for the 1742 would only be valid on that train unless you book a flexible ticket.

https://www.flamport.no/ship-arrivals tells us that Queen Mary 2 will be in port all day on August 8 - capacity 2695 passengers. Plus crew of course, some of whom will come ashore - but without much money to spend, they are doomed to just hang around, that's beyond the scope of this thread.
The itinerary is worthwile all the same. Flew to Bergen to be met by the mother of a very good friend of mine. She had flown in from Orkney. We had a look around Bergen & visited Edvard Grieg's composer's hut. Then had our trip to Flåm & went to Oslo, where my friend lives. A fine trip. Both of us went home by plane from Oslo. Me to Schiphol & Michael's mom by Schiphol-Aberdeen to Orkney.
Enjoy your trip!

cactustwirly said:

What airline are you travelling with? easyJet and Ryanair have their own Low Cost terminal at CPH

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Not really, they just use Pier F which is a bit further away from arrivals than the gates used by other airlines. The time to get out of the airport is really dependent on whether you are first off the plane and how many minutes ago the previous non-Schengen flight opened its doors. I got on a train 10 minutes after the plane door opened in 2016, but that was because the immigration officers were just glancing at passports back then (the EU said that passports must now be scanned, adding about 20 seconds per passenger), and I knew exactly where to go.

Yorkie will likely be out just after the 1642 train has departed, and the airport station is a very boring place to wait, one option would be to go into Copenhagen city and walk round for a bit, and book the train that will become the 1842 (this also mitigates effects of flight delay). If confident with the timetable, you could also loop around via the metro to Nørreport where the 1742 from the airport departs at 1719

43096 said:

Di4 diesel locos (GM 645 engines)

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...quite rare beasts too - only 5 in existence (and NSB's only mainline diesels).

Copenhagen to Gothenburg - Have done this in reverse when I last looked it was cheaper to do Malmö - Gothenberg. Personally would consider getting local train to Malmö on walk up ticket with a few hours round Malmö (has lockers in station) then later reserved train. Also found the Oresundtag had a slightly better view going over bridge.

Didn't find First class significantly better (slightly better seat, self serve tea/coffee and fruit IIRC. For less than £15 might as well go for it (I did). Leg room and seats are pretty good on SJ standard class. Haven't been on MTR competitor yet, although don't think they are running Gothenburg-Malmö yet.

Oslo to Bergen - Did it a couple of years ago. The tourist package including ferry down Fjord, bus to station closer to Bergen from Fjord and all trains was only 100kr more expensive than just train and was very nice.

I think you will find the trains on your route busy, not not overcrowded. Those dates are the end of the Scandinavian summer so many people will be at their summerhouses and everything slows down in the big cities.

Copenhagen - Goteborg: Your proposed trains are the Oresundstag type, which are quite spacious by UK standards. First class consists of the same seat width and slightly more legroom, but is probably not really worth it. The tickets you have been offered are non-rebookable (ie. non-changeable) and flexible. (NB. Non-rebookable fares are not quite the same as UK advance fares which can of course be changed before departure for a £10 fee.) In general in Sweden, there is less of a price premium for flexible fares than we are used to in the UK. The route is relatively interesting: you go through the big subterranean stations at Malmo and Helsingborg (prototypes of the future HS2/NPR station at Manchester Piccadilly?) and some of the scenery closer to Goteborg is quite interesting.

Goteborg-Oslo-Trondheim is quite scenic, but a little slow (particularly Goteborg - Oslo). It's a pretty remote route, particularly on the Norwegian/Swedish border You might want to bring your own snacks as those on train are not that exciting (the line is a bit of an afterthought on the NSB network even though it is an international, intercity line!)

Oslo-Myrdal-Flam is certainly one of the top 10 routes in Europe. It's a bit of a long-slog to do it in one day but it has some spectacular scenery through the Hardanger mountains, although the views have been curtailed by the new Finse tunnel section at the top which is designed to keep the line open during severe snowfall and cut journey times. Although the peak is only at about 1200m up -- not much by Swiss standards -- being Norway there is heavy rain which often falls as snow (sometimes even during the summer) as the cloud banks roll in from the Atlantic and cool off very quickly over the mountains. The descent from Myrdal to sea level at Flam is particularly dramatic -- you will see the vegetation change and feel the temperatures warm up as you come down. It is worth doing even if QM2 is docked there (you might want to avoid all the tourist shops though whilst you are down there). From Flam it is also possible to get a catamaran fast boat down the Sognefjord to Bergen (but this is not covered by Interrail), if you like scenery (and fast boats).

In Norway there is no first class per se but something called NSB Komfort instead. Again, it is the same seat width/pitch as 2nd but is slightly less crowded and offers free coffee (tea is not widely drunk in Norway, everyone prefers mega-strength coffee!) and newspapers. So you can open up your Aftenposten and try and figure out what makes the amazing country of just 5m people tick as the fabulous scenery rolls buy. Sweden may have got the people, but Norway definitely got the views!



Oslo
have

Can anyone advise how easy it is to get seat reservations for travel on NSB using an Interrail pass. The Interrail site suggests using a call centre (or doing it at a booking office in Norway) but i was wondering if there is a way to do it online.

Did you try www.vy.no?

yorkie said:

I see there are high speed services at 1742, 1842, and 1942. Does anyone know if these are likely to be busy? Standard class is 500SEK and first is 640SEK for non-rebookable but it's unclear if I bought such a ticket for the 1742 if I'd be valid on the 1842 or if I need the "refundable" ticket? The "re-bookable" option is greyed out. There will be two of us; will 1st class be better for us (e.g. it may be possible to get a table for two)?

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No, those departures are Öresundståg regional trains. For the trip to Gothenburg I'd try to catch a SJ high speed train as they are faster and more comfortable.

paddington said:

Yorkie will likely be out just after the 1642 train has departed, and the airport station is a very boring place to wait, one option would be to go into Copenhagen city and walk round for a bit, and book the train that will become the 1842 (this also mitigates effects of flight delay). If confident with the timetable, you could also loop around via the metro to Nørreport where the 1742 from the airport departs at 1719

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In that case the 17.11 departure with a change in Lund sounds perfect to me.

One of our group has left his InterRail pass at home; we arrive into Copenhagen Airport around 5:30pm this evening and get to Gothennburg later in the evening, then tomorrow morning we take a train to Gothenburg and then we are departing tomorrow morning before 7am. The pass isn't needed until the train tomorrow from Gothenburg

Does anyone know if it is possible to obtain a new InterRail pass on the day? And if it is, where is the best place to do it? (as it's a Norway pass, which is valid from Gothenburg, does that make a difference?)

Also the Seat61 site suggested reservations were not possible from Copenhagen to Gothenburg, but when I do a dummy booking, it asks if I want a seat, and does appear to assign one?

yorkie said:

Does anyone know if it is possible to obtain a new InterRail pass on the day? And if it is, where is the best place to do it? (as it's a Norway pass, which is valid from Gothenburg, does that make a difference?)

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Sorry to hear this.

Even if it’s possible to buy one in Gothenburg, you may struggle as a foreigner without a Swedish ID number. I’m a RoI/UK citizen newly arrived in Sweden and I’m about to buy an InterRail pass, but I can’t do it until my personnummer arrives. There’s a SJ travel centre in Gothenburg Central Station, but I don’t believe SJ sell InterRail passes - you need a travel agency. InterRail.se is the only portal I know about for buying them in Sweden.

yorkie said:

Also the Seat61 site suggested reservations were not possible from Copenhagen to Gothenburg, but when I do a dummy booking, it asks if I want a seat, and does appear to assign one?

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You must have a seat reservation if it’s a SJ Snabbtåg (X2000 high-speed train). If it’s an Öresundtåg no seat reservations are possible.

EDIT: I’m wrong. Seat reservations are possible on Öresundtåg, but not required. Info.

We booked the 1738 from Copenhagen Airport on the SJ app, which is due to Gothenburg before 10pm. The 1742 was faster but more expensive.

A Guard (?) looked at our tickets and said we needed to change in Copenhagen Airport and could not understand why the tickets said 1738 instead of 1742. He said we should be fine for the next train. However staff at the station said we had bought tickets for a bus and so we decided not to risk it, and we bought replacement tickets.

So we ended up on the train back the other way an hour later, which then got terminated in Malmo due to trespassers on the track. We then had to change trains to the high level station to the train a further hour later. We boarded the part of the train advertised for Gothenburg, to discover that the train was actually the wrong way round, so we had to move from the rear to the front.

I hope we have a smoother time when we reach Norway!

This article popped up in my Twitter feed today; it’s from a Swiss newspaper about the new Norwegian franchising model.

In German, but Google Chrome can Translate it quite well.

https://www.nzz.ch/wirtschaft/macht...-der-eigenen-staatsbahn-den-garaus-ld.1499294

jamesontheroad said:

I’m a RoI/UK citizen newly arrived in Sweden and I’m about to buy an InterRail pass, but I can’t do it until my personnummer arrives.

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You can buy an Interrail pass online in the normal way, entering your passport number as ID and having it posted to your address in Sweden.

There is no requirement to have a personnummer to buy it online and it is fine to use your passport for ID for an Interrail issued to a Sweden home address as long as the number matches that on the pass.

scarby said:

You can buy an Interrail pass online in the normal way, entering your passport number as ID and having it posted to your address in Sweden.

There is no requirement to have a personnummer to buy it online and it is fine to use your passport for ID for an Interrail issued to a Sweden home address as long as the number matches that on the pass.

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Sorry, should have expanded on that. I’m using a corporate travel agent because my employer is paying for the trip. They require the personnummer.